ACCOUNTING FOR STRONG LOCALIZED HETEROGENEITIES AND LOCAL TRANSPORT EFFECT IN-CORE CALCULATION

Two methods based on the variational nodal transport method have been developed to account for localized heterogeneities and local transport effects in full core calculations. A local mesh refinement technique relies on using the projected partial ingoing surface currents produce d during coarse-mesh iterations as boundary conditions for fine-mesh c alculations embedded within the coarse-mesh calculations. The outgoing fine-mesh partial currents are averaged to serve in the coarse-mesh i terations. Then, a mired transport-diffusion method using two levels o f angular approximations for the surface partial currents depending on the node considered has been implemented to account for local transpo rt effects in full core diffusion calculations. These methods have bee n tested for a model of the Superphenix complementary shutdown rods.